1.This morning, I am going to present a
lesson on the subject of temptation.

2.The Bible teaches that we are all tempted
to sin.No one is immune from
temptation.

INTRODUCTION:

In 1986, Gordon MacDonald, who at that
time was the president of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, was asked the
question: “If Satan were to blow you out of the water how do you think he would
do it?"

Mr. MacDonald said, “I’m not sure I
know, all sorts of ways, I suppose; but I know there’s one way he wouldn’t get
me.“He’d never get me in the area of
my personal relationships with my family.That’s one place where I have no doubt I’m strong as you can get.”

Within two years of making that
statement, this admirable and respectable Christian leader was a broken
man.He had committed adultery against
his wife and nearly lost everything he had.

3.Satan, who is called the tempter (Mt.
4:3; 1 Thess. 3:5), is out to get us.He doesn’t care how spiritual we are, or how
secure we are in our Christian homes; he is going to tempt us to sin hoping to
lead us away from God and our families.

BRETHREN, SINCE WE KNOW SATAN IS OUT TO
GET US, WE BETTER BE PREPARED FOR HIS ATTACKS.WE MUST LEARN HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION.

THIS MORNING, I AM GOING TO OFFER THREE
POINTS ON HOW WE CAN RESIST TEMPTATION.

I.FIRST, TO RESIST TEMPTATION, WE MUST
UNDERSTAND WHAT TEMPTATION IS.

1.What
is temptation?Temptation is an
enticement or an allurement to sin against the will of God.

2.James
explains temptation this way:

(Jam.
1:13-15)“When tempted, no one
should say, “God is tempting me.”For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but
each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and
enticed.Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives
birth to death.”

3.These
verses teach several things about temptation.

a.First,
God does not tempt us to sin, in fact, (1 Cor. 10:13)
explains that God provides us with a way out of temptation.God allows us to be tempted in order to
refine our faith and to help us grow in our dependence upon Him.

b.Second,
temptation in of itself is not sin.Jesus was tempted, however, He was without sin.Temptation only becomes sin when we give
into the temptation.

4.Let
me try to explain the process of temptation with a personal illustration.

ILLUSTRATION:

When I was in 5th grade, I rode in a
bicycle competition.The rules were
very simple.If you complete five
miles, you won a lot of prizes.

About 2 miles into the race, I realized
that I didn’t want to complete the race (I was tired), however, I wanted the
prizes.Then I heard a little voice in
my head say, "Keith, turn around, take a short cut, go to the finish line
and pretend that you rode all 5 miles."

At that point the temptation to lie was
planted.James called it the evil
desire.If I would have said no to that
temptation it would not have been a sin.

Next, I heard a little voice say,
"Keith you deserve those prizes.No one will ever know that you cheated."At that point I was being, as James put it, dragged away and
enticed.

Then, I rode to the finished line,
received applause from the crowd, and picked up my prizes and went home.At that point I gave birth to sin.

5.Temptation
is a process.

a.Temptation starts with a harmless thought
or desire that entices us to do something that we are not supposed to do.

b.Next the initial thought is then
entertained and explored.We
contemplate committing the sin.

c.And then after entertaining the thought,
we commit the act of sin to fulfill our cravings and desires.

6.Here
is another example of how temptation works:

a.In
the early chapters of Genesis, Eve was given the desire to eat the fruit, which
God had forbidden her to do.

(1)We, likewise, are constantly bombarded
with desires to commit sin.

(a)We are tempted to lie on our income taxes.

(b)We are tempted to get angry and seek
revenge upon our enemies.

(c)We are tempted to lust after other human
beings.

(d)All of us are flooded with desires to
commit sin.

b.Next
Eve entertained the thought--if I eat the fruit I will gain wisdom and be like
God.She justified the sin.

(1)We also entertain tempting thoughts so
that we can justify or rationalize committing the sinful act.We say things like:

(a)Everybody’s doing it.

(b)No one’s perfect.

(c)God will forgive me, so I might as well do
it.

(d)God wants me to have a little fun.

(e)I didn’t know it was wrong.

(f)When we are tempted to sin, we entertain
the desire and think of the benefits of the sin.

c.Then
after spending some time thinking about it, Eve committed the sin.Right after committing the sin, both Adam
and Eve hid from God.

(1)After we commit sin, Satan wants us to
feel so guilty that we alienate ourselves from God.And when we alienate ourselves from God, it will produce
spiritual death--the type of spiritual death James talked about.

7.Brethren,
if we are going to conquer temptation we must stop the temptation from going
past the first stage.We are all going
to have tempting thoughts and desires, however, we must not entertain those
thoughts.If we do, then chances are we
will commit the sin.

8.So
far, we have noticed to resist temptation, we must first know what temptation
is.

II.SECOND, TO RESIST TEMPTATION, WE MUST
PREDETERMINE IN OUR MINDS THAT WE WILL NOT GIVE IN TO THE TEMPTATION AND SIN
AGAINST GOD.

1.No
matter how desirable, alluring, appealing, tantalizing, or inviting the sin may
be, we must not commit it.We cannot
get suckered into Satan’s web of deceit.Nothing in this world is worth our souls, or our godly reputations.

2.We
must say "no" to the temptation; we must say “no” to sin!

ILLUSTRATION:

In (Gen. 39),
Potiphar’s wife wanted Joseph to go to bed with her.

The
Bible says in (Gen. 39:6-8)“Now
Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife
took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”But he refused.

How did this young and handsome man
resist should a temptation?

The
answer is in verse 9: “My master has withheld nothing from me except you,
because you are his wife.How then
could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

Joseph predetermined in his mind that he
would not commit such a sin against God.

3.To
resist temptation, we must predetermine in our minds not to sin against God.

III.THIRD, TO RESIST TEMPTATION, WE MUST RELY
UPON THE STRENGTH OF GOD.

1.In
the Scriptures, we are told time and time again to rely upon God’s strength to
fight off temptation.

(Eph.
6:10-11)“Finally, be strong in
the Lord and in His mighty power.Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand
against the devil’s schemes.”

ILLUSTRATION:

Sometime back, the Denver Post reported
this story: Like many sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Lowler has tried just
about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing her sheep.She has used odor sprays, electric fences,
and scare-coyotes.She has slept with
her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near
them.She has corralled them at night,
herded them at day.But the southern
Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs—fifty last year alone.

Then she discovered the llama—the
aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama…. “Llamas don’t appear to be
afraid of anything,” she said.“When
they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it.That is aggressive behavior as far as the
coyote is concerned, and they won’t have anything to do with that…Coyotes are
opportunists, and llamas take that opportunity away.”

2.When
Satan attacks us with his devilish schemes, we must not fight him alone.We to send the llama to help.We must send God to get rid of him.

3.When
we are tempted, we need to go immediately to God in prayer and ask Him to help
us resist the urge to commit the sin.

CONCLUSION:

1.Brethren,
everyday we battle temptation, and at times we lose the battle.But we must keep fighting and fighting to
defeat it.

2.The
Bible tells us that we can resist temptation.

3.How?

4.To
resist temptation…

a.We
must understand what temptation is.

b.We
must predetermine in our minds that we will not give into the temptation and
sin against God.

c.We
must rely upon the strength of God to help us overcome temptation.

5.This
morning, if you have been losing the battle with temptation, come forward and
ask God to help you.With the Lord's
help, you can conquer Satan and the temptations that he throws at you.If you are subject to the Lord's invitation,
please come now as we stand and sing.